follow that we saw the obstructionist tea party congress willing to throw the economy and the country under the bus. so we knew this from day one and we just saw how they said, no, no, no, even to the president's jobs anticipation agenda. >> if you knew it from day one, do you think that the white house approached it wisely, foolishly or somewhere in between in terms of the way that they dealt with this kind of opposition? >> of course, the president wanted bipartisan cooperation. he's an optimist. he knows the country still wants to come together to do the job for the american people and that's to create jobs and turn the economy around and so, i have to give the president a lot of credit because he's started from day one and when i listen now to the republicans, you would think that the president never, ever tried. here i'm there saying, oh, my god, he's going too far. he's doing this and that and from day one we wanted -- >> too much. >> so -- but he was willing to try and i give him a lot of credit. >> have you seen, senator, an arc in the -- and you're someone relatively new. you